The digital viewership has reached new heights and the international digital players like Netflix and Amazon reached India. Even the regional films are acquired for huge prices. Considering all these, the producers quoted big numbers for the digital prices and the actors have demanded big remunerations. Things changed badly in the past six months. The OTT players are not much bothered about small budget films and they are now dictating new rules for the films featuring stars. As they have the release chart ready before 4-5 months, they are not in a mood to buy all the films. They turned quite selective and they are indeed dictating the release dates so that they can avoid clash of releases on their digital platform.
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This turned out to be a nightmare for several films. With no budgets available, Pawan Kalyan’s OG is pushed to next year. The digital players are ready to buy the rights for a record price only if OG releases next year. The makers too pushed the film’s release. Amazon, Netflix and Hotstar have completed their budgets for the year 2024 and several Telugu films are left unsold. All these have to wait for 2025 to close the deals and have a theatrical release. Most of the filmmakers are not ready to release their films if their digital rights are unsold as it would be a huge risk for them. After the satellite market has seen a decline, the producers are relying heavily on the digital rights of their films. Considering all these, the OTT players turned dictators and they are commanding the market.
